This is such a beautiful dance. =) Meryl and Charlie are so wonderfully original, not only in their chemistry and unison, but also in their elegance, captivating interpretation, and ability to tell a story through their dancing. My favorite pair, by far. ;)
i love that you can see that they've always had their speed and power across the ice. They obviously improved their lines and finishing over time but the essence of what gave them command is visible here. They both have better posture now and Charlie's skating is more contained.
Such a beautiful performance. The more than I learn about this couple, the more I value their performances. I LOVE that Meryl would not allow her visual problems to become an issue and did not want the judges or fans to know. I now understand why it seemed she was always grasping Charlie's hand--she lacks depth perception. As a person with that problem, I am SUPER IMPRESSED.
Yes this was certainly a beautiful performance. I'm very impressed by Meryl and Charlie not only because they are the best ice dancers in the world, but just the way they handled themselves when that french rag leaked a bogus story to the world. They are classy people which is more than I can say for their Canadian counterparts who whined about their coaches when they came in second. It must be a trademark of Canada because I've never seen a country of people whine as much as the Canadians. It really opened my eyes about Canada... I'm underwhelmed by them.............
starsmoon0216 I saw an episode of their tv show (while they were training for the Olympics) and they're not nice people when it comes to D/W. It left a very bad taste in my mouth, to say the least.
+Anna Odonnell It was only mentioned in one skating blog (and how Charlie helped her protectively when they were warming up with other skaters on rink at same time, since she couldn't tell how far away she was from the rest; and how it was particularly difficult for her to judge where she was when rink had no lines under the ice), but she refused to talk about it and make it an 'issue' or 'excuse'. Nor did Charlie ever talk about the fact that he had asthma (which is why he sometimes looked out-of-breath at the end of a free dance). Classy people, the best ice-dancers in the world. I wish they would repeat this program and the "Samson and Delilah" program now as pro's (or a variation of those two outstanding free dances).
Sharon here: I love being able to go back in time and catch up on the competitions prior to 2010. Well, to be truthful, I love seeing all of their routines, from any year. This one was particularly beautiful.
I totally agree. She just floats across the ice, but she has such a strong presence as well. She's beautiful inside and out. I love Meryl and Charlie...
Sharon here: Exquisite - the dainty ballerina, the energetic athlete so beautifully paired. All they would become is before them. I so enjoy these trips down Memory Lane watching their rise to their golden moment.
i like their footwork and choreography here SO much more than marina's alone. their diagonal step sequences are more interesting. i wonder though why charlie always gets to the big moves. the jump, that flying thing he does over meryl's back in almost every single piece. you can see too, as time progressed he becomes more and more flamboyant and meryl goes more into the background. not complaining, just noticing.
+Lara Hartley I think that's because Charlie was always very outgoing and Meryl was extremely shy. She only really became more mature, sophisticated, and elegant in her skating as she grew older (and especially after she did "Dancing with the Stars"). But they meshed nicely together: Charlie just has a naturally more flamboyant personality and Meryl is still a bit more constrained and elegant; but they work beautifully together. I think she came more "out of the background" as she grew older, less shy, more confident, but still retained a certain quiet, beautiful elegance.
I prefer Virtue & Moir (for a lot of reasons) but you can see this team has extreme fluidity and inventiveness. The speed comes partly because they don't have a lot of close holds, which are far more difficult at speed than open holds. At this point in their careers their body positions are not refined compared to the very top teams. It was apparent that they improved every year until they finally won Gold.
It’s crazy to think that the music they used in their first senior free dance was in the opening ceremony of the Olympics they won their gold medal at, because it just so happened to be in Russia. Like what are the odds.
